Trino

Open-source distributed SQL engine for querying data lakes and many databases in one query.

Open sourceSelf-hostableData warehouses and analytics databases

Updated Nov 4, 2026 · AppBreakup editorial · Self-hosted, Linux

Visit Trino See 6 alternatives

Is Trino free?

Yes, free and open source

License:: Apache-2.0

Checked on Trino's site Nov 4, 2026

Switch from Trino to

All 6

Google BigQuery
Starting price: $6.25 per TiB scanned (on-demand)
Compare
ClickHouse
Free trial: 30 days with $300 credits
Databricks
Paid
Compare

Verified facts: 5 of 5
Alternatives ranked: 6
Approved reviews: 0
Visits sent from here: 0

About Trino

Trino is an open-source, distributed SQL query engine for analytics over large data sets. Formerly called PrestoSQL, it was created by the original Presto developers and is now run by the non-profit Trino Software Foundation. Rather than storing data itself, Trino queries data where it lives: object storage such as S3 and HDFS with table formats like Hive, Iceberg and Delta Lake, plus relational databases, Cassandra, Kafka and other sources through connectors. A single query can join data across several of these systems. It speaks ANSI SQL and works with BI tools such as Tableau, Power BI and Superset. Data teams run it on their own clusters, on premises or in any cloud, for interactive dashboards, ad-hoc analysis and batch ETL. Trino is free under the Apache 2.0 licence; managed versions are sold by companies such as Starburst, and Amazon Athena is built on it. It is not a transactional database, and running a cluster well takes real operations work.

Best for: Data teams that want fast SQL over a data lake and other databases without copying data into a warehouse..

What works

Queries data in place across lakes, databases and NoSQL stores
Federated joins across different systems in one SQL query
Standard ANSI SQL that works with common BI tools
Free under Apache 2.0 with an active community

Why people leave

Not a transactional database or a storage layer on its own
Self-managed clusters need tuning and operations skills
No official managed service from the project itself

Trino vs Google BigQuery, ClickHouse and Databricks

From each app's listing and the prices verified on its own site. A dash means we haven't verified it yet.

Attribute	Trino	Google BigQuery	ClickHouse	Databricks
Pricing	Open source	Free plan + paid	Open source	Paid
Verified price	—	$6.25 per TiB scanned (on-demand)	30 days with $300 credits	—
Free plan	Free app	Yes	Free app	No
Open source	Yes	No	No	No
Self-hostable	Yes	No	No	No
Platforms	Self-hosted, Linux	Web	Web, Linux, macOS, Self-hosted	Web

Full Trino vs Google BigQuery comparison Full Trino vs Databricks comparison

Top Trino alternatives

See all 6

1
Google BigQuery
Serverless SQL warehouse that can also query external tables in Cloud Storage.
76.8
2
ClickHouse
Open-source column store that's very fast for real-time analytics on data you load into it.
74.4
3
Databricks
Managed lakehouse with Spark SQL and Photon, so there's no query cluster to run yourself.
68.8
4
Snowflake
Fully managed cloud warehouse with storage included and little tuning to do.
64.8
5
DuckDB
In-process SQL engine that queries Parquet and CSV files locally with no cluster at all.
57.5

Why people left Trino

In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.

No switching stories yet. If you moved away from Trino, review the app you switched to and tell us why.

Reviews

No approved reviews yet. How we verify reviewers

Write a review of Trino

Your rating of Trino

Name

Never shown publicly. A work email helps us verify you.

Title

Your review

What did you use it for, and what was good or bad? At least 40 characters.

Did you switch from another app?

Why did you leave it?

How can we verify you use it? (optional)

A GitHub username, your company domain, or say you can send a screenshot. Verified reviews count more.

I received money, credit or a gift for writing this review. (Incentivized reviews are shown but don't count toward rankings.)

By submitting, you confirm you're at least 16 and agree to our terms. Your name, rating, review and the date are published; your email isn't. See our privacy policy.

Trino: common questions

What is Trino?

Trino: Open-source distributed SQL engine for querying data lakes and many databases in one query. Best for data teams that want fast SQL over a data lake and other databases without copying data into a warehouse. Available for Linux, and you can host it yourself.

Is Trino free?

Yes. Trino is free, open-source software that you can host yourself.

Is Trino open source?

Yes. The source code is on GitHub at trinodb/trino. You can also run it on your own server.

What platforms does Trino run on?

Trino is available for Self-hosted and Linux.

What are the best alternatives to Trino?

The highest-ranked Trino alternatives right now are Google BigQuery, ClickHouse and Databricks. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.

Trino vs Google BigQuery: what's the difference?

Trino is free and open source; Google BigQuery is free with paid plans. Trino is open source and Google BigQuery is not. Only Trino runs on Linux. Only Google BigQuery runs on Web.

See all 6 Trino alternatives

Trino facts

5 of 5 verified

License: Apache-2.0; Checked Nov 4, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab); “License: Apache-2.0 (Apache License 2.0).”
Formerly: PrestoSQL; Checked Nov 4, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab); “formerly known as PrestoSQL (https://trino.io).”
Query federation: Yes; Checked Nov 8, 2026trino.io(opens source in a new tab); “Query federation Access data from multiple systems within a single query.”
SQL standard: ANSI SQL; Checked Nov 8, 2026trino.io(opens source in a new tab); “Simplicity Trino is an ANSI SQL compliant query engine”
Governance: Trino Software Foundation; Checked Nov 8, 2026trino.io(opens source in a new tab); “Open The Trino project is community driven project under the non-profit Trino Software Foundation.”